Was freddy murcury gay

"I don't think even he was fully cognizant in the beginning," guitarist Brian May once told the Daily Express. In 2017 May told the Sunday Times, "It was fairly obvious when the visitors to Freddie’s dressing room started to change from hot chicks to hot men." Cities like New York and Munich had gay scenes where Mercury, who'd called his sex drive "enormous" and who'd sung about being "a sex machine ready to reload," found one-night stands and more.

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Being a rock star allowed Mercury to push gender boundaries

Mercury was the one who suggested naming the band Queen, which at the time was a derogatory term for a gay man.

And then, of course, AIDS struck and tarnished the gay community in many people's eyes.

But it wasn't to protect himself that Freddie stayed quiet.

Peter says: "The reason he never spoke about himself was because immediately he made any statement to the press, it would reflect on the band. In fact, his parents were apparently told that a male lover living at Mercury's home in London was the gardener.

READ MORE: Meet Mary Austin, the Woman Who Stole Freddie Mercury's Heart

He openly dated both men and women

As a young man, Mercury dated women, and he entered into a serious relationship with Mary Austin in the 1970s.

Despite their romantic relationship lasting only 6 years, she stayed close to him until the very end – true friendship never dies.

Relationship with Jim Hutton

Moving on from Freddie Mercury’s relationship with Mary Austin, the singer had a significant romantic involvement with Jim Hutton. Well, that's it and I don't want it to make a difference.

Despite public speculation and concern, Mercury chose not to publicly identify as gay or bisexual during his interviews and performances.

This refusal to conform to societal expectations added layers of complexity to his personal life and legacy, contributing to ongoing conversations about sexual identity and the stigma surrounding homosexuality.

Many worried about the superstar’s sexual orientation, which he refused to openly discuss despite his status in the music industry.

Peter Freestone, Mercury's personal assistant over his last 12 years, called to say "don't bother coming."

Freddie Mercury remained a enigma: After all of this time, and after all of his many subsequent loves, Mercury's will dictated that Mary Austin – not Jim Hutton, or any other man before him – would receive nearly his entire estate.

It was a convenient little place to be."

Even the decision to call his band Queen was meant to provoke, to color everything they did with a whisper of mystery: Is he or isn't he?

"The name was Freddie's idea," Taylor said in Is This the Real Life?: The Untold Story of Queen.

Needless to say, times were different in 1954.

"He had this habit of calling one 'darling,' which I must say seemed a little fey. Their intimate relationship developed during the 1980s and became an emotional connection that added complexity to Freddie Mercury’s personal life.

Jim Hutton, a regular man from Ireland, fell in love with Freddie, contributing to the multifaceted nature of the singer’s sexual orientation.

It simply wasn't something boys did in those days," schoolmistress Janet Smith says in Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury. Classmates at the St. Peter's Church of England School in Panchgani, India, an elite boarding school where the young Tanzania-born Farrokh Bulsara had begun school at age eight, apparently always suspected he might be gay.

There, Farrokh Bulsara was permanently left behind for Freddie Mercury, though every contradiction was in place from the start.

Watch Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Video

His outfits were wildly androgynous; his onstage persona incorporated a theatrical sense of camp.

It’s no secret that the Queen icon was a master of musical and personal mystique. It was Paul who had originally introduced the star into the gay world in the 1970s and helped him "not to be ashamed" of who he was. Yet Mercury didn't entirely give up on women: in the 1980s his female paramours included German actress Barbara Valentin.

Mercury also didn't limit himself to steady relationships.

"You're talking to someone who shared rooms with Fred on the first couple of tours, so I knew him pretty well. Mercury's statement didn't mention his sexuality—meaning he maintained his policy of not commenting on the matter to the very end.